Join the Knitting Daily TV Knit-along for the Fallen Leaves Scarf

The new season of Knitting Daily TV is just beginning to air on public television stations around the country (Series 500 – check your local listings for air dates/times) and we're thrilled to announce that we'll be sharing with you here on KnittingDaily.com the videos from the knit-along segments. We love knit-alongs at Knitting Daily, and guest Zontee Hou of Lion Brand Yarn Company will be walking viewers through three exciting projects this season, each chosen to help expand your knitting skills. The first of these knit-alongs is the Fallen Leaves Scarf, a very fun stitch sampler project, which you can download by clicking here. And so, without further ado let me introduce you to Zontee to talk about the first project. Check back each week on Tuesdays for new installments on the Fallen Leaves Scarf knit-along.

Hi Knitting Daily TV fans!

I'm very excited to be leading you through three knit-alongs here on KnittingDaily.com and on the TV show through the rest of the year; it's going to be an exciting opportunity to learn, create awesome projects, and grow as yarncrafters together. But before we get into the project, let me tell you a little bit about myself. Here at Lion Brand, I'm the editor of our newsletters, which include The Weekly Stitch–the official newsletter of Lion Brand, What's New in Patterns This Week which is a weekly newsletter that showcases the absolute latest in patterns from Lion Brand, YarnPlay, a newsletter for the young and young at heart, and finally the Lion Brand Yarn Studio's newsletter, which features events and special deals for customers of our New York City retail store. In addition to those newsletters, I'm also the editor of our official blog, the Lion Brand Notebook, and I also write, produce, and co-host our radio-style podcast, YarnCraft. Well, with all of those things on my plate, you may wonder how I had time to shoot these segments for Knitting Daily TV with Eunny, but the truth is that I was thrilled to be able to share my love of knitting and crochet, and my love for expanding those skill sets.

This first project, the Fallen Leaves Scarf, is a great example of a project that challenges you to grow if you're a novice knitter because it includes several different techniques. Over the next 3 weeks, you'll learn the seed stitch, a basket weave pattern, and how to use slip-stitch knitting to add color and texture to a project

Now that you've got a sense of what the project is going to entail, here's a little homework before next week:

Download the pattern and pick up your supplies.

Read through the entire pattern so that you get a sense of how it's going to work. There is the Gauge, which is the set of measurements that you will need to match in order to make sure that your pattern turns out the correct size, the Stitch Explanation section (a glossary that you will refer back to when you're working the pattern), Notes (tips from the pattern editors), the Pattern itself, and Abbreviations. Tip: Need more explanation of any of the abbreviations? Go to LionBrand.com and find more detailed explanations by clicking on "Abbreviations" under the Learn Center heading.

Practice makes perfect! Try out the special stitches if you have never done them before. If you're not familiar with basket weave patterns, essentially checkerboard patterns made of knit and purl stitches, try it out first according to the Stitch Explanation. You'll see that we're using a sort of interrupted basket weave pattern, where we have one completely knit row in between every set of 4 rows.

If you haven't ever worked in seed stitch before, make a practice swatch. TIP: If you look at seed stitch up close, you'll see that it's basically a checkerboard of single knits and purls. Therefore, the easiest way to create it is to "read" your stitches as you work. If you see a knit stitch (which I often say looks like a little "V") as the next stitch that you're working into, you are going to purl that stitch (do the opposite of what it looks like). If you see a purl stitch (which looks like a "bump"), you will knit it. Remember that you decide what a stitch is by what it looks like CURRENTLY, not by how it was made (since the reverse side of a knit stitch is a purl stitch).

Feel free to try the Two-Color Pattern, which is our slip-stitch section, but if you have trouble, don't worry. We'll go over it in the video next week. Tip: When trying a new skill that you're not sure about, I find it's best to take the directions as literally as possible. Don't overcomplicate them; instead, if the pattern says "wyib" meaning "with yarn in back", just assume that your working yarn will be in back of your needle and not that they mean "behind your back" or "behind the couch" or something that's not written there.

And of course, don't forget to leave a comment and introduce yourself! Who are you and where are you from? What colors have you chosen for this pattern? What are you hoping to get out of this project?